One of the folks in my local IBD support group survived a dissecting aortic aneurysm that she attributes to Cipro (most people don’t survive). The increased risk is something like 1.5% though, based on what I’ve read. Someone with the risk factors mentioned in the article should be very, very careful. I’ve made the judgement that the Cipro I take is worth the increased risk, but I’ve lately been thinking about getting a screening ultrasound of my aorta, since I’ve been on Cipro for about 10 years.

A couple things should be kept in mind here. First is that having IBD in and of itself doubles the risk of heart attacks and cardiovascular disease, and likely also increases the risk of aortic dissection by so much more than taking Cipro as to make that 1.5% increase from Cipro pale to near meaninglessness.

Around 12 years ago I represented a client who had an aortic dissection and died. The main reason he died is because he was discharged from the hospital without a chest x ray having been performed. Aortic dissection often presents with unusual symptomology including abdominal distress and nausea but the key one in that case was a weakened pulse. Had the chest x ray been done and had they gotten the guy into emergency surgery after reviewing the X Ray, he had around a 75% chance of survival. I should note that he had a very advanced for his age cardiovascular disease, and only a 10 year life expectancy per our medical expert. But the aortic dissection went undiagnosed and he was dead a few hours after the hospital discharged him with a diagnosis of gastritis.

My GI sent me for a stress test as soon as I turned 50. The reason why wasn’t Cipro. The reason why was inflammatory bowel disease. I passed the first post 50 stress test. I failed the second when my blood pressure shot up to 220/120 after 4:30 on the treadmill. I felt tremendous at the time and requested that the test continue but the tech only did so for 30 seconds when my BP remained spiked at 220/120, and then terminated the test. I was later sent to a cardiologist and given an ultrasound echocardiogram. It was normal. My blood pressure hovers on the high side of normal and I take fish oil capsules.

The bottom line is on this board I have noticed that some people seem to worry more about the meds than the disease being treated. The disease being treated is bad for your body and not just because of the inconvenience of having to move your bowels 10 times a day. Inflammation of a chronic nature is taxing on the body. It has to be treated and if it’s not treated eventually the risk factors will come home to roost as you get older.

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